When I was a teen in the 80's, do you recall what you were seeing the men in blue driving when they pulled up behind you. Chances are it was at least 1 entry from each of the then big-3 - either a Chevy Caprice Classic, a Ford LTD (Crown Victoria), or a Plymouth Gran Fury. But one by one these players pulled out from the market. The Gran Fury (& sister car Dodge Diplomat) were pulled because of obsolete technology (based on the '76 Aspen/Volare). The Caprice was redesigned for '91 and eventually died after '96.
That left the Crown Victoria which was redesigned for '92 and has been on essentially the same platform since then. Face it, as old as the design is getting, a greater percentage of Crown Vic sales were going to police departments which were faced with far fewer choices of cars to choose from. Essentially, the Crown Vic had a near monopoly. I take that back, the General (in the later half of the 90's and through most of this decade) has passed off a front drive car as a police car. It started with the Chevy Lumina and now has worked it's way through two generations off front drive Chevy Impalas. The rigors of police work doesn't bode well for a front drive vehicle. The city of Midland had an Impala as part of it's fleet for a short time then very quickly left. I picture a front-drive police car belonging to the streets of Cabot Cove, Maine more than one does belonging to the streets of Chicago.
Now comes a serious new contender to the police car market from the company currently known as Chrysler LLC - the Dodge Charger. This isn't the General Lee, nor is this the small 3-door hatchback based on the old Dodge Omni but rather this is a new, modern, powerful rear drive sedan. This new Charger can run circles around a Crown Vic standing still. It's smaller than a Crown Vic (probably larger than the Gran Fury's though) but this can get a police officer to where he/she needs to be in short order and probably quite efficiently too. More and more departments are recognizing this. Even the city of Midland has a number of Chargers in its police fleet. It's nice to see some more options in this kind of market. I'm sure "Cops" fans are probably getting tired of seeing only Crown Vic's on TV.
BTW - isn't it ironic that the Crown Victoria has been removed from Ford's vehicle lists for 2008, only being sold to fleets.
Finally, messages we are being given by our police cars...
- Dodge Charger - "I am police, hear me roar"
- Ford Crown Victoria - "I'll wake up by the time we get there"
- Chevrolet Impala - "Call me if you need me, I'll be at the donut shop"
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